Cell surface proteins can drive diametrically opposed phenotypic outcomes when bound by ligands, distinct molecules that attach to other specific molecules. Therefore, efforts to rewire membrane protein signaling, introducing a specific function could improve and change how we develop treatments.

Dr. Green Ahn will engineer novel membrane protein effectors in Dr. David Baker’s lab at the University of Washington. Using artificial intelligence protein design tools, Dr. Ahn will design a library of de novo extracellular effectors against particular ectodomains of cell surface proteins and investigate how those effectors impact downstream function. Ahn’s studies will provide fundamental insight into membrane protein signaling and set the stage for future therapeutic targeting of these pathways.

Ahn’s expertise in targeting membrane proteins stems from her graduate studies in Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi’s lab at Stanford University. There Ahn developed the first cell-type-specific degrader for a membrane protein. Ahn built on that study to discover cellular factors that are required for targeted membrane protein degradation. She also helped develop the first de novo designed proteins that trigger membrane protein degradation in collaboration with Dr. David Baker’s lab. With this experience Dr. Ahn is poised to make future discoveries with implications for our fundamental knowledge of protein membrane biology as well as future therapeutic strategies.